The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-04-17
HINDOO ARISTOCRlTS.
The Elk FRAORDINARYISPUENCE
THEY HAVE WIrH THEiR
People Owing to the Baleful system
or Caste, a Remnant OF Which
Liugers With Us.

Lingers Win U.s.
In the year 1878, being then in the
lndianGovernment SERVICE was sent
with many others to South India to
superintend the reliet operations
which had to be undertaken in con-
sequence Of the famine, and from
the nature of my duties | was com
PEELED to mingle with all classes OF
that suffering population-irom the
servile Sudra to the benign Brahmin
and was thus enabled to get fair
insight into their life and character.
Southern India, says a writer in the
San Francisco Chronicle, shows the
extraordinary influence which is
welded by this priestly class, the
awful veneration in which the Brah-
min is held by the lower castles. In
Northern India the Brahmin, though
a powerful factor in the economy of
affairs, is not the dreaded autocrat
that he is in South India, where his
power has not been broken by the
Eruption Of Mohammedan conquers
from Afghanistan and beyond. Here
his women have not to be yelled
through the fear that their beauty
might excite the lust of their con-
querors, protected by the English
and pampered by them. The Brah-
minis of today differ but slightly
from the Brahmins of the time
when Asoka reared his ugly monu-
ment on the spot now surrounded by
the railway shops of the East India
railway at Allahabad.
1t was with the view OF briefly de-
scribing some of the marked charac-
teristics of the Southern Brahmins
as exemplified in the two great castles
of Vishnu aud SILVA that this article
is written. Each of these castles is
equal in every respect, but notwith-
standing their perfect equality the
law orders that they shall have
nothing in common, going so far that
Vishu cannot eat with SILVA
without a total loss of caste. In
Brahminism the trinity is Bruma,
Vishnu and Shiva-the first the ere
ator, the second the preserver, and
the third the destroyer. Now all
Brahmins worship Bruma, but the
Vishnuites and Shivites also worship
their particular deity and direct no
prayers to the opponent of their
god. Naturally a spirit Of rivalry
arises from this cause, rivalry
which displays itself on every occa-
sion, and forces itself not alone into
the concerns Of daily life, but ham
pers the public service.
To study Brahminism, its mysti-
cism, its almost fatal influence either
on its devotees or upon those wretch
ed people who are not of that faith
and who from that unfortunate cir.
cumstauce are, according to the
Brahminical theory, no better
than dogs, one must go to South In.
dia. There they will learn that the
Brahmin is an autocratic aristocrat
and that neither merit, nor wealth
nor bravery, nor talent can place any
man not a Brahmin on the same ped.
estal on which crouches the mean.
est uatured man of his divine origin
And whether he be Vishnu or Shivi
the Brahmin is an autocrat. On,
recognizes that whatever may be hi
other qualities, the Brahmin is I
gentleman-a cultured and intellect
ual man of the world, who recog
nizes none as his superior and grea
MANY AS his inferior. The Brahmil
is striking example of tn
superiority Supposed to b
due to the accidenG of birth, and tn
further south one travels the NOR,
marked is this. In Tanjaze, whicl
is termed the Garden OF India, Mad
dura and Tinnevelly, does the Bra h
min most repay study. Here, unde
their vast groves, the Brahmil
seems not to have heard through tn
dense forest the hustle of an enter
prising world. His world is yet tn
tiny hand swept village, with it
schoolhouse where the pupil learn
by rote Brahminical nonsense an
peculiar English phraseology, 70
the Brahmin knows that unless h
, learns English there is no chance 10
him to wear the government livery
. which, alike to European and native
is the highest aspiration.
) The way in which to distinguish
the devotees of Vishnu and SILVA
not difficult, for men of Vishnu wea
, on their foreheads a mark similar t
this A, while those of SILVA carry i
, the center Of their foreheads roun,
! ssndalwood dot, which is used b
: Hiudoostan women for the same pur
I. pose as are the tiny black stlckip
plaster dots upon the fair faces O
our ladies, called beauty spots.
, The Vishnuites and Shivites ais
carry distinction in their names
. The former take the afhx "Iengar
! to their names, while the latter hav
= Eyer" Not alone this, the charaC
ters of the TIVE are also different. Th
a Iengars, it is declared, are Sc,
4 sufficient race, and are noted fo
!. their cunning, while the Iyers al
: said to be humber, more ingenuou
: and more scholarly inclined. As tn
|, women's names are never known t
|, the outside world, and as they carr
! no distinguishing marks on thei
faces, they are known b
their dress. A woman of tn
Vishuu caste wears the folds {
her paijama tights across her knee
a and thus displays a shapely cal
which may be enyied by any woman
though it be hidden by the pstticoa
The SILVA woman, on the contrar,
has loose fold hanging on one sid
of her right leg below the knee. Th
material from which her garment
f; made is Of a silky texture, yellowis
aud red; it is but single sheet, an